Two Tribes Move Closer To Securing FM Radio Stations

American Indian tribes hold less than one percent of the roughly 15,200 radio station licenses issued by the Federal Communications Commission.”

March 24, 2013 as published in Diverse Education

By Felicia Fonseca, Associated Press

 

FLAGSTAFF Ariz. — Two Southwest tribes are moving closer to securing radio stations that others in Indian Country have turned to for emergency alerts, health tips, the latest rodeo news, traditional stories and language lessons.

American Indian tribes hold less than one percent of the roughly 15,200 radio station licenses issued by the Federal Communications Commission, a figure the commission has been trying to boost through a rule it approved in 2010 to give federally recognized tribes priority in the application process, and help preserve language and culture.

“Telling one’s own story, broadcasting in one’s own voice, in an exercise of self-determination and self-reliance, is so important a goal of so many broadcasters in tribal communities that its value cannot be overstated,” the FCC said in its 2012 annual report.

Earlier this month, the FCC set aside the first two FM allotments under its Tribal Radio Priority for the Hualapai Tribe in northwestern Arizona and Navajo Technical College in northwestern New Mexico. The tribe and the college owned by the Navajo Nation are now waiting for the FCC to open a filing window so they can secure construction permits and build their stations.

“Radio will give them tremendous community outlook,” said Fred Hannel, a consultant for the Hualapai Tribe. “They can rally the whole community around a radio station, give them a sense of identity.”

Other tribal entities will have an opportunity to apply for the same allotments for the commercial stations after the FCC’s order takes effect April 15. The Hualapai Tribe says it isn’t expecting to lose out because no other tribe is located in the area it wants to broadcast.

Applicants who want to be considered under the tribal priority must be a federally recognized tribe or an entity, like the college, that is majority-owned by a tribe and propose to cover at least 50 percent tribal land. Successful applications are processed without going through an auction.

Navajo Technical College had faced competition in applying for a construction permit for a non-commercial educational station under a points-base system. But the college did not build the station before the permit expired in August 2008, and the FCC denied a request for an extension and to downgrade the service area. The college said it erroneously believed that grant funding it secured to set up the radio station and the construction permit would expire at the same time, and it also couldn’t get electricity to its original transmitter site, according to FCC documents.

At the time, the college said it was “virtually guaranteed” to prevail under the Tribal Radio Priority for a commercial FM station. The FCC said it wouldn’t prejudge a future proceeding nor apply the tribal priority retroactively. The station would reach out to 13,500 people in remote, isolated areas around Crownpoint, N.M., and be broadcast in Navajo, the college wrote in FCC documents.

The Hualapai Tribe already has been using the Internet to broadcast morning blessings, results of tribal elections, a radio drama aimed at improving health, traditional Hualapai music and community service announcements. The FM radio station would allow anyone within a 30-mile radius of the station to tune in, particularly those who can’t access the Internet.

“Once we get our FM frequency on, it’s really going to build a lot of interest,” said tribal member Candida Hunter.

The spread of information on the reservation otherwise comes through fliers posted at government offices, a tribal newsletter or word of mouth. Terri Hutchens, project coordinator, said tribal members could have benefited last year from an announcement over the radio about water contamination, which led to a temporary school closure. She said some people received fliers but others didn’t find out until days later when the problem was fixed.

“That’s something certainly that could be addressed through the emergency alert system,” she said.

The radio station won’t reach the entire 1-million-acre reservation along the southern edge of the Grand Canyon on the western corridor.  Hutchens said the tribe has plans to expand the range within five years. The funding is in place for terrestrial radio equipment, and the tribe will use existing towers for the transmitter.

For now, community members are encouraging each other to listen to the Internet broadcast and volunteers are pitching in to provide content in the Hualapai language.

“We’ve actually been having fun. We’ve been bringing them in to train them on how to be a DJ,” Hutchens said.

A Book for Those Serious About Defeating Diabetes

Defeating Diabetes
Brenda Davis & Tom Banard | Healthy Living Publications
280 pp | $14.95
ISBN 9781570671395

Levi Rickert, Native News Network

 

It is no secret to any American Indian or Alaska Native that there is a strong preponderance of the possibility of developing diabetes.

Defeating Diabetes book review

 

The numbers speak for themselves.

American Indians and Alaska Native are 2.2 times more likely to have diabetes compared to non-Hispanic whites. The death rate due to diabetes among American Indians and Alaska Natives is three times higher compared with the general US population. American Indians and Alaska Natives are three to four times higher at risk for developing cardiovascular disease with diabetes than Natives without diabetes.

Even with the dismal numbers associated with diabetes among American Indians and Alaska Natives, there is hope.

Earlier this year, hundreds of American Indians participated in the Longest Walk 3 – Reversing Diabetes. The Longest Walk was a walk across America, from the West Coast to Washington, DC, that sought to bring attention to the devastating effect diabetes has had within Native communities. The message of the Longest Walk also was American Indians can reverse diabetes.

American Indians are fighters; American Indians are survivors.

Beyond Native communities, we know diabetes is at epidemic rates among society.

A book called “Defeating Diabetes: A No-Nonsense Approach to Type 2 Diabetes and the Diabesity Epidemic” by a registered dietitian Brenda Davis and medical physician Tom Banard is a great tool for American Indians to pick up to read about how to defeat diabetes. Even the book’s title takes a position of strength.

Published in 2003, “Defeating Diabetes” is about making lifestyle changes about diet and exercise. Most would agree that that is a lot easier said, than done. But, the book is a quick read that provides common sense, backed with medical rationale, to alter lifestyles.

“Defeating Diabetes” contains many tables with information on fat counts, sugar content, and some 50 healthy recipes. Some of the numbers of contained in the book will make one think. For instance, one Mister Misty DQ Slush, 32 oz. contains 28 teaspoons of sugar; an ounce of hard candy has five teaspoons of sugar.

Weight control is paramount to one trying to defeat diabetes. The book’s authors provide “Seven Simple Steps to Lifelong Healthy Weight”:

  1. Set realistic goals
  2. Center your diet on whole plant foods
  3. Use beverages to your advantage
  4. Limit fat intake to not more than 25 percent of calories
  5. Build healthy habits
  6. Make physical activity a priority in your life
  7. Take care of your inner being

One chapter, “Kitchen Wizardry: Tricks of the Trade” will help the reader to better understand what to buy at the grocery store, with suggestions on where to shop, how to read food labels and food storage guidelines.

“Defeating Diabetes” is a practical guide on how to defeat diabetes. Do not buy this book for your bookshelf, it must be read and used. American Indians and Alaska Natives should have this book at their fingertips if they are truly serious about maintaining a healthy lifestyle and want to defeat diabetes.

Noted writer to read at Everett library event

Source: The Herald

Timothy EganWhen you team up a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist with one of the most renowned photographers in Pacific Northwest history, you get an adventure story.

That story turned into the book “The Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis.”

The book is written by Seattle-based journalist Timothy Egan, who will read excerpts at a Friends of the Everett Public Library literary event.

The event is scheduled for 7 p.m. April 6 at the Everett Performing Arts Center, 2710 Wetmore Ave., Everett.

It’s free and open to the public. Donations will be accepted to support the annual children’s Summer Reading Program.

Books and wine will be for sale. There will also be a question-and-answer session with National Public Radio commentator, author and librarian Nancy Pearl, known for her spots on NPR’s “Morning Edition” and her best-selling book “Book Lust.”

Egan follows the story of Curtis, a Seattle resident and portrait photographer of great acclaim (President Theodore Roosevelt paid him to photograph his daughter’s wedding).

Though his renown was well-established, Curtis decided in 1900 to pursue his life’s work: to photograph all the intact Native American tribes left in North America.

After 30 years, Curtis completed the 20-volume set, “The North American Indian,” which left him broke and divorced.

Egan is sympathetic to Curtis’ plight in this journey and with journalistic detail, Egan delivers not just an adventure story but a biography as well.

For more information go to www.epls.org/.

Norovirus hitting younger kids hard

By Sharon Salyer, The Herald

Norovirus, the same viral bug that sickened more than 200 people attending a cheerleading competition at Comcast Arena last year, is now the leading cause of tummy and intestinal illness among children four and under.

The virus, which causes vomiting and diarrhea, is so common and widespread that one in six children age four or younger will be treated in clinics for norovirus, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An estimated one in 14 children in this age group will be treated at an emergency room for the infection.

“The message that norovirus has been increasing, especially among those under age five is disturbing,” said Dr. Gary Goldbaum, health officer for the Snohomish Health District. “Those are the ones that get sick enough to end up in the doctor’s office.”

Although the disease can cause short-term, but very uncomfortable, problems for people of any age, it is of extra concern among the very young, he said. “They don’t tolerate getting dehydrated very well,” he said.

For some of the same reasons, norovirus can be a problem with older adults. Last year, 10 outbreaks of suspected norovirus were reported in facilities that care for the elderly, such as adult family homes and nursing homes, Goldbaum said.

Norovirus is sometimes called cruise ship disease because of outbreaks that move rapidly on such ships, sickening many people.

The virus “hits people really hard and then in a couple days, it gets better,” Goldbaum said.

Each year, noroviruses sickens more than 21 million people in the United Stats and approximately 800 people die, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Patients have been coming to area medical clinics with norovirus symptoms almost continuously for the past several months, said Dr. Yuan-Po Tu, who helps track communicable diseases at The Everett Clinic.

“It’s not an epidemic, but there’s always some level of it going around,” he said.

The virus typically sickens people for two to seven days, he said, often causing only a slight fever of 99 to 100.5 degrees.

Norovirus is extremely contagious. People near a person when they become ill can easily become infected themselves, Goldbaum said.

Those who are sickened by norovirus are contagious from the moment they begin feeling ill to at least three days and as much as two weeks after they recover, according to federal health officials.

The steps to help stop its spread include careful hand washing and not sharing food or drinks with someone who is ill.

The disease was blamed with sickening 229 teens and adults who were attending a cheerleading competition at Comcast Arena in February last year. Thirty-three people sought medical care for severe vomiting and diarrhea.

A Monumental Day

“Samuel Gomez, the war chief for Taos Pueblo, was in Washington, D.C., on Monday as President Barack Obama proclaimed a new national monument near the tribe’s reservation in northern New Mexico.”
 
Originally posted ABQ Journal
By Jackie Jadrnak / Journal North Reporter
on Tue, Mar 26, 2013

Not a single dissenting voice was heard when community meetings were called to discuss making Rio Grande del Norte into a national monument, according to Taos Mayor Darren Córdova.

It should be no surprise, then, that the Taos County Commission Chamber was full to bursting with some 150 residents applauding Monday’s signing of the presidential proclamation declaring the 242,555 acres in Taos and Rio Arriba counties a national monument.

Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., hosted that local gathering, while the official signing ceremony itself took place in Washington, D.C. Area residents who joined President Barack Obama in the Oval Office included former U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, who was credited with spearheading the preservation of this land; Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.; Questa Mayor Esther Garcia; and Taos Pueblo War Chief Samuel Gomez.

“This is a great day for New Mexico,” Bingaman said in a news release. “I’m glad that President Obama found northern New Mexico’s landscape so compelling that he was willing to make the Río Grande del Norte his largest monument designation to date.

“There is no doubt in my mind that the community, which has strongly supported this effort, will benefit from the conservation and cultural protections that come with this designation,” he said.

Vice President Joe Biden, center, reacts after President Barack Obama signs legislation under the Antiquities Act designating five new national monuments on Monday in the Oval Office. From left are Samuel Gomez, war chief for Taos Pueblo, Biden, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. (susan walsh/the associated press)

Vice President Joe Biden, center, reacts after President Barack Obama signs legislation under the Antiquities Act designating five new national monuments on Monday in the Oval Office. From left are Samuel Gomez, war chief for Taos Pueblo, Biden, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. (susan walsh/the associated press)
Vice President Joe Biden, center, reacts after President Barack Obama signs legislation under the Antiquities Act designating five new national monuments on Monday in the Oval Office. From left are Samuel Gomez, war chief for Taos Pueblo, Biden, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. (susan walsh/the associated press)

That local consensus was key in moving the project forward, Heinrich said in a telephone interview last week. Without it, action on the federal level often is stalled, he said.

“It’s one of those really special places,” Heinrich said, adding that in the mid- to late 1990s, as director and an outfit guide with the Cottonwood Gulch Foundation, he took kids all over the Southwest, including to raft and explore the Rio Grande Gorge.

That gorge is only a piece of the new national monument, which stretches to the Colorado border. Obama’s proclamation lists the riches found in the area, including canyons, volcanic cones, natural springs and native grasslands.

“The river provides habitat for fish such as the Río Grande cutthroat trout, as well as the recently reintroduced North American river otter,” the proclamation reads. “The Río Grande del Norte is part of the Central Migratory Flyway, a vital migration corridor for birds such as Canada geese, herons, sandhill cranes, hummingbirds and American avocets. Several species of bats make their home in the gorge, which also provides important nesting habitat for golden eagles and numerous other raptor species, as well as habitat for the endangered southwestern willow flycatcher.”

Besides bald eagles and other birds, the area includes Rocky Mountain elk, mule deer, pronghorn and Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, and rare Gunnison’s prairie dogs, as well as the ringtail, black bear, coyote, red fox, cougar and bobcat, according to the proclamation.

Petroglyphs, some dating as far back as 7,500 B.C., are found concentrated near hot springs in the gorge, along with a number of artifacts tracing ancient habitation. The Rio San Antonio gorge also contains such historic reminders, while San Antonio Mountain is thought to be the source of dacite used to make stone tools, states the proclamation.

Ute Mountain, at 10,000 feet, is the tallest of the extinct volcanic cones that dot the area. Remnants of homes and people who settled the area right after World War I can be found on the slopes of Cerro Montoso, while other artifacts throughout the area mark the passage of Spanish explorers and settlers.

“The Río Grande del Norte has long supported our cultural traditions in northern New Mexico, such as hunting, irrigation and grazing,” said Udall. “As a permanently protected national monument, it will drive even more economic progress and job growth through tourism in communities that desperately need it.”

The Rio Grande Gorge, looking north from the Taos Gorge Bridge is now part of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument near Taos, NM, photographed on Monday March 25, 2013. (Dean Hanson/Journal)
The Rio Grande Gorge, looking north from the Taos Gorge Bridge is now part of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument near Taos, NM, photographed on Monday March 25, 2013. (Dean Hanson/Journal)

For tribes, prosecuting non-native abusers still a challenge

“The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon could be the first in Indian Country to assert jurisdiction over non-Indians who commit domestic violence offenses.”
 
Originally published in PBS Frontline
March 25, 2013, 4:17 pm ET
By Sarah Childress
Follow @sarah_childress

 When President Barack Obama signed the Violence Against Women Act earlier this month, he spoke of cracking down on domestic abuse in Indian Country, where the violent crime rate is more than 2.5 times the national rate and impunity is deeply entrenched.

“One of the reasons is that when Native American women are abused on tribal lands by an attacker who is not Native American, the attacker is immune from prosecution by tribal courts,” Obama said.

“Well, as soon as I sign this bill, that ends,” he said. “That ends.”

But for most tribes, closing that loophole against abusers will take time. For some, it may not happen at all.

The law has two provisions that already apply nationwide. Tribal governments can now enforce protection orders filed in state or federal court. The law also imposes stiffer penalties on anyone who inflicts substantial bodily injury on a partner, such as strangling or suffocation.

It’s the law’s controversial provision of trying non-Natives in Native court systems — one that initially held up its passage — that poses the challenge.

Tribal justice systems vary in their capabilities. On some reservations, attorneys and judges aren’t required to have a law degree. Defense attorneys may not be provided. Tribal law enforcement officers often don’t have the proper training to handle major crimes cases.

At the moment, no tribe has a system currently capable of enforcing the new law as it’s written. The law requires that tribes provide non-Native defendants with the same rights they would have in U.S. courts, including a right to an attorney, trained judges, and trial by their peers, meaning the court must at least attempt to include non-Indians in its jury pool.

“It’s Going to Start Small”

Only about 100 of the 566 federally recognized are likely to be able or interested in implementing the new protections over the next five years, according to John Dossett, the general counsel for the National Congress of American Indians, a D.C.-based group that represents the interests of Native Americans.

Of those, only 10 to 20 are likely to come into compliance in the next two years.

Many tribes are just too small to have their own justice systems and leave law enforcement to the state and federal authorities entirely. Others have remote reservations with few non-Native residents, so that prosecutorial power isn’t as much of a priority.

As always, there’s also the question of money. The law provides $5 million a year for five years — a total of $25 million — to help tribes strengthen their justice systems. That’s assuming Congress allocates the funding, which could be jeopardized by the sequester.

“The tribal criminal jurisdiction is more of a long-term project, and I think everyone understands that — I hope they do,” said Sam Hirsch, the deputy associate attorney general at the Justice Department’s Office of Tribal Justice.

Hirsch said the office will consult with the tribes before drawing up a written policy outlining the next steps, and work with those who want to take advantage of the new provision. The office will also help the tribes find the funding they need, he said.

“It’s going to start small, and it’s going to spread and build,” he said.

A Symbolic Victory

Even if only a few tribes enforce it, the law is important as a symbolic victory, said Sarah Deer, a professor at the William Mitchell College of Law in Minnesota and a tribal justice expert.

“It provides more options to tribes, and that’s what I think sovereignty is about, being able to make decisions that are best for your community,” she said. “The less federal intrusion we have in sovereignty, the better off Indian people are going to be.”

Tribal advocates pushed for this new legislation in part because without it, domestic violence crimes were left to the federal government to prosecute — which often didn’t happen.

The federal government declined to prosecute 50 percent of the cases in Indian country referred to U.S. attorneys from 2005 to 2009, according to a 2010 Government Accountability Report (pdf). That rate was higher for violent crimes, at about 52 percent. For sexual abuse, the rate was 67 percent.

Federal officials have said the high declination rates occur in part because evidence is difficult to come by, especially in assault cases, and witnesses are often reluctant or unwilling to testify.

According to a 2010 law, the Justice Department is required to report its declination rates for cases on Native American reservations to Congress, but has yet to report rates for recent years. A Justice Department spokesman said it would be filing a report to Congress with that information in April.

One federal prosecutor told FRONTLINE that the declination number for major crimes has since gone down, in part because cooperation between tribes and federal officials has improved, making it easier to gather the evidence needed to try and win cases. But he declined to provide specific figures.

One Tribe on the Fast-Track

For the most part, justice on the reservation for the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla in northeastern Oregon looks a lot like justice elsewhere in America.

Tribal law enforcement officers receive the same training as state police, and the judge has a law degree. Defense attorneys are provided for those who ask for them, and the tribe is able to prosecute major felonies. Those who are convicted serve their time in the county jail.

But when it comes to domestic violence, it’s almost as if the system doesn’t exist.

About half of the 3,000 people living on or near the Umatilla reservation are non-Native, many of them married to women from one of three tribes: the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla. Tribal officials have no jurisdiction over non-Native men on the reservation.

Women there often don’t even bother to report abuse, said Brent Leonhard, an attorney for the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla’s Office of Legal Counsel.

“There’s real reluctance because of the belief — which was correct — was that it wouldn’t be prosecuted, which just makes it more dangerous for the victim,” he said.

Leonhard said the lack of domestic violence prosecutions had led some to buy into the false belief that abuse doesn’t even exist on the reservation, further isolating victims and emboldening their abusers.

The law could change that.

At Umatilla, it’s a practical matter of updating the tribal code to allow the tribes’ courts to prosecute non-Indians. Under the Tribal Law and Order Act, passed in 2010, tribes were allowed to prosecute some felonies, and even to impose jail sentences of up to three years. Most tribes didn’t use the new power because their systems weren’t strong enough, and they lacked the funds to upgrade them.

But for the communities that did, like the Umatilla, their legal codes are current enough that they won’t need to make as many adjustments, Leonhard said.

Leonhard hopes to have the provisions in place by the end of the year. Then, he’ll petition the attorney general to expedite the process to begin prosecutions of non-Native abusers.

“I think, and I hope, it will make a very large difference,” he said.

 

Source

Italian court orders new trial for Amanda Knox

Italy’s highest criminal court ordered a whole new trial for Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend on Tuesday, overturning their acquittals in the gruesome slaying of her British roommate.

By FRANCES D’EMILIO

Originally published Tuesday, March 26, 2013 at 3:46 AM

Associated Press

ROME —

Italy’s highest criminal court ordered a whole new trial for Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend on Tuesday, overturning their acquittals in the gruesome slaying of her British roommate.

The move extended a prolonged legal battle that has become a cause celebre in the United States and raised a host of questions about how the next phase of Italian justice would play out.

Knox, now a 25-year-old University of Washington student in her hometown of Seattle, called the decision by the Rome-based Court of Cassation “painful” but said she was confident that she would be exonerated.

The American left Italy a free woman after the 2011 acquittal and after serving nearly four years of a 26-year prison sentence from a lower court that convicted her of murdering Meredith Kercher. The 21-year-old British exchange student’s body was found in November 2007 in a pool of blood in the bedroom of a rented house that the two shared in the Italian university town of Perugia. Her throat had been slit.

Raffaele Sollecito, Knox’s Italian boyfriend at the time, was also convicted and acquitted.

It could be months before a date is set for a fresh appeals court trial in Florence, which was chosen because Perugia has only one appellate court. Italian law cannot compel Knox to return for the new trial and one of her lawyers, Carlo Dalla Vedova, said she had no plans to do so.

`’She thought that the nightmare was over,” Dalla Vedova told reporters on the steps of the courthouse. “(But) she’s ready to fight.”

He spoke minutes after relaying the top court’s decision to Knox by phone from the courthouse shortly after 2 a.m. local time in Seattle.

Another Knox defender, Luciano Ghirga, was gearing up psychologically for his client’s third trial. Ghirga said he told Knox: “You always been our strength. We rose up again after the first-level convictions. We’ll have the same resoluteness, the same energy” in the new trial.

Still, it was a tough blow for Knox, and she issued a statement through a family spokesman.

“It was painful to receive the news that the Italian Supreme Court decided to send my case back for revision when the prosecution’s theory of my involvement in Meredith’s murder has been repeatedly revealed to be completely unfounded and unfair,” she said.

Knox said the matter must now be examined by “an objective investigation and a capable prosecution.”

“No matter what happens, my family and I will face this continuing legal battle as we always have, confident in the truth and with our heads held high in the face of wrongful accusations and unreasonable adversity,” Knox said.

The young woman had planned to sit down with a U.S. TV network to tell her story in a prime-time special to be broadcast April 30. The exclusive ABC News interview was timed to the publication of her new book `’Waiting to Be Heard.”

It wasn’t immediately clear if there were any plans to delay the book, given the court setback.

Dalla Vedova said Knox wouldn’t come to Italy “for the moment” but would follow the case from home. He said he didn’t think the new appeals trial would begin before early 2014.

Prosecutors alleged Kercher was the victim of a drug-fueled sex game gone awry. Knox and Sollecito denied wrongdoing and said they weren’t even in the apartment that night, although they acknowledged they had smoked marijuana and their memories were clouded.

An Ivory Coast man, Rudy Guede, was convicted of the slaying in a separate proceeding and is serving a 16-year sentence. Knox and Sollecito were also initially convicted of the murder and given long prison sentences, but were then acquitted on appeal and released in 2011.

Whether Knox ever returns to Italy to serve more prison time depends on a string of ifs and unknowns.

Should she be convicted by the Florence court, she could appeal that verdict to the Cassation Court, since Italy’s judicial system allows for two levels of appeals – by prosecutors and the defense alike. Should that appeal fail, Italy could seek her extradition from the United States.

Whether Italy actually requests extradition will be a political decision made by a new government being formed right now after last month’s inconclusive national election.

In the past, Italian governments on both the left and the right refused Italian prosecutors’ request to seek extradition for the trial of 26 Americans accused in the kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan as under the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program. All 26 were tried in absentia, convicted of having roles in the abduction and received sentences ranging from seven to nine years. It will be up to the new government to decide if they will seek extradition to serve the sentences, all but three of which have been confirmed by the supreme court to date.

Ultimately, it will be up to U.S. authorities to decide to send Knox to Italy to serve any sentence if she was convicted. Dalla Vedova noted that U.S. authorities would likely carefully study all the documentation in the case to decide whether the U.S. citizen had received fair trials.

U.S. and Italian authorities could also come to a deal that would keep Knox in the United States.

The United States in the past extradited to Italy an Italian woman convicted in a domestic U.S. terrorism case after a deal was reached that she would serve out the rest of her sentence in her homeland. Instead, Italian authorities released her from prison not long after she arrived back in Italy, citing medical reasons.

Sollecito, who turned 29 on Tuesday, sounded shaken when a reporter from Sky TG24 TV reached him by phone to ask about the legal setback.

“Now, I can’t say anything,” said the Italian, who has been studying computer science in the northern city of Verona after finishing up an earlier degree while in prison.

One of his lawyers, Luca Maori, said neither Sollecito or Knox ran any danger of being arrested. `

‘It’s not as if the lower-court convictions are revived,” he said, noting that the Cassation Court didn’t pronounce “whether the two were innocent or guilty. ”

The appeals court that acquitted Knox and Sollecito had criticized virtually the entire case mounted by prosecutors, and especially the forensic evidence which helped clinch their 2009 convictions. The appellate court noted that the murder weapon was never found, said that DNA tests were faulty and that prosecutors provided no murder motive.

In arguing for the acquittals to be overturned, the prosecutor described the Perugia appellate court as being too dismissive about whether DNA tests on a knife prosecutors allege could have been the one used to slash Kercher’s throat and DNA traces on a bra belonging to the victim could be reliable findings, as well as tests done on blood stains in the bedroom and bathroom.

Whether that argument swayed the top court at this point was unclear, said Dalla Vedova.

Sollecito’s attorney, Giulia Bongiorno acknowledged that perhaps the appeals court ruling had been “too generous” in ruling that the pair simply did not commit the crime, but was confident that Sollecito’s innocence would be affirmed.

The court on Tuesday also upheld a slander conviction against Knox. During a 14-hour police interrogation, Knox had accused a local Perugia pub owner of carrying out the killing. The man was held for two weeks based on her allegations, but was then released for lack of evidence.

Her defense lawyers have contended that Knox felt pressured by police to name a suspect so her own interrogation could end.

Because of time she served in prison before the appeals-level acquittals, Knox didn’t have to serve the three-year sentence for the slander conviction. The court on Tuesday also ordered Knox to pay 4,000 euros ($5,500) to the man, as well as the cost of the lost appeal.

It was not known why the court concluded the appellate court had erred in acquitting Knox and Sollecito and won’t be until the Cassation judges issue their written ruling.

But Prosecutor General Luigi Riello, who successfully argued before the Cassation panel of judges for the acquittals to be overturned, said he thought it could be significant that the slander conviction was upheld. He noted that the appellate court – in explaining the acquittals – apparently didn’t attribute to Knox’s falsely accusing the pub owner a possible motive of covering up any of her own involvement.

The new trial in Florence will be `’guided by the principles” laid down in the written Cassation’s explanation, Riello said. Should the Cassation judges think `’there is a link” between Knox’s reason for fingering the pub owner and the murder, it could bolster prosecutors, he said.

The Kercher’s attorney, Francesco Maresca, said after Tuesday’s ruling: “Yes, this is what we wanted.”

In her statement, Knox took the Perugia prosecutors to task, saying they “must be made to answer” for the discrepancies in the case. She said “my heart goes out to” Kercher’s family.

—

AP writer Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.

Marysville University addresses downtown/waterfront revitalization April 10

Source: The Marysville Globe

Courtesy image.A graphic representation of what Marysville's downtown could look like in the long term.
Courtesy image.
A graphic representation of what Marysville’s downtown could look like in the long term.

 

MARYSVILLE — The city of Marysville invites the public to a special meeting to share ideas for not only revitalizing the downtown and waterfront areas, but also ways to create a more vibrant, pedestrian-friendly downtown.

Marysville University will provide the setting for the public meeting from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 10, in the Marysville City Council Chambers on the second floor of City Hall, located at 1049 State Ave.

The evening will include a review of the city’s revitalization measures to date, as well as recommendations and interactive “pulse pad” voting that will give attendees a say in how to prioritize long-term and short-term revitalization needs. The pulse pads, on loan from the Association of Washington Cities, provide instant feedback and results, displayed on a large screen.

“How revitalization evolves must come from and belong to all citizens and business owners in our community,” Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring said. “We’re here to listen.”

The City Council committed $150,000 for downtown revitalization efforts and a public engagement process. Some funds were spent to hire a consultant team to work with city leaders. The group met in January with a key city staff team for workshops to define a development strategy for Marysville’s waterfront, to give the City Council confidence to move forward with the next steps. The group recommended creating a complete community downtown, built around multi-story housing and mixed uses, with access to social and recreational opportunities such as:

• Neighborhood dining.

• Outdoor rooms.

• Water features such as fountains, canals and lakes.

• Open space.

• Narrow streets that are pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly.

Some ideas generated thus far have included sidewalk and street improvements for better walkability, gateway improvements and way-finding signage, matching funds for building exterior improvements, a spray park, a kayaking facility, Qwuloolt trail design, and modest traffic and landscaping improvements.

Refreshments will be available. Classes are videotaped, and will be shown on Marysville Cable Access TV 21 on Comcast, and TV 25 on Frontier, at dates to be announced later.

Please call Marysville Community Information Officer Doug Buell at 360-363-8086 by Friday, April 5, to reserve your seat, or email him at dbuell@marysvillewa.gov. Be sure to include your name, phone number, postal address and email address. For more information, contact Buell or log onto http://marysvillewa.gov/marysvilleuniversity.

Judge orders BIA to reconsider Duwamish Tribe recognition

Posted on Indianz.com

Monday, March 25, 2013

 

For the first time, the Bureau of Indian Affairs has been ordered to explain why it denied federal recognition to a tribal petitioner.

The BIA has been successful in beating back lawsuits from groups that were refused recognition. But a federal judge said the agency didn’t do a proper job of explaining why the Duwamish Tribe of Washington, whose leaders filed a petition in 1977, didn’t make the cut.

“As previously discussed, the [Interior] Department‘s decision not to acknowledge the Duwamish is an extremely weighty one for the Duwamish people,” Judge John C. Coughenour wrote in the 19-page decision that was issued on Friday. “Moreover, concerns about the basis for the Department‘s acknowledgment decisions have plagued the process and undermined confidence in that process.”

Under former assistant secretary Ada Deer, the BIA proposed to deny recognition to the tribe in 1996. But in the final days of the Clinton administration, acting former assistant secretary Michael Anderson said the tribe deserved federal status.

The new Bush administration, however, put a hold on the decision and former assistant secretary Neal McCaleb denied the tribe in September 2001. Coughenour said the move was “arbitrary and capricious” because McCaleb evaluated the petition under a different set of rules than Anderson.

“Plaintiffs should not be left to wonder why one administration thought their petition should be considered under both sets of rules, but a second did not,” Coughenour wrote.

Coughenour ordered the BIA to re-evaluate the petition under the rules that led Anderson to grant recognition or to explain why it won’t do so.

Turtle Talk has posted documents from the case, Hansen v. Salazar.

Source Indianz.com